The Federal Government’s plan to close down private schools found operating with unqualified teachers has received a boost from some owners of private schools in Nigeria.

During the South-West stakeholders meeting held at the University of Ibadan with chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Board and Post-primary Schools Board, Registrar of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Olusegun Ajiboye, said the FG would set up a Teachers Information System, which is a database of registered, licensed and qualified teachers in the country.

He said the council now had about two million registered and qualified teachers in its database, adding that the aim was to weed out unqualified teachers from schools and improve on the standard of education.

Ajiboye said that, beginning from January 2019, any school found guilty of employing unregistered, unqualified and unlicensed teachers would be shut down.

Reacting to the idea, John Alonge of the Golden Heart College, Ogun State, in an interview with our correspondent in Ibadan, described it as a welcome development that would eliminate sub-standard practices in many private schools.

He said, “It is a welcome development. We are the stakeholders and we must protect the industry from quacks. If we can establish a school like ours, which is renowned for academic excellence, it is vital to employ only qualified teachers. The school employs teachers with the TRCN certificate. Each time we advertise for teachers, we emphasise this criterion.

“You cannot practise as a doctor when you are not one. Why then have we labelled private schools as dumping ground for unqualified teachers? Leaving education in the hands of unqualified persons is dangerous for the nation future.”

Similarly, the owner of Royal Seeds Private School in Ibadan, Samson Kadelu, said the efforts of the TRCN and the FG’s policy on primary and secondary school standards would sanitise the sector, which had been invaded by unqualified persons.

He said, “Many school owners are after the money and that is why they cut costs by employing unqualified teachers who are paid low wages.”

While thanking the state governments in the South-West for working with the council to upgrade the quality of education, Ajiboye called for the state governors’ support in ensuring that teachers in public schools were registered and licensed by TRCN.